Article: MIN 13, TOR 7: Mauer Grand Slam Among 4 Twins Homers In Comeback Victory

[Tom Froemming]

Things didn’t get off to a great start for the Twins Sunday afternoon, but oh boy did they end well. After spotting the Blue Jays a five-run lead, the Twins stormed back and not only caught Toronto, but ended up blowing them out.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs)

Download attachment: Snapshot917.png

Gibson entered this game on quite the roll, having pitched to a 1.38 ERA over his previous five starts. Matt Trueblood of Baseball Prospectus did an excellent overview of Gibby’s turnaround, and among the reasons for it he cited the fact that Gibby has been doing a better job of mixing things up, deploying a five-pitch repertoire. He seemed to have a feel for zero of those pitches in the early innings of Sunday afternoon’s game.

 

Gibson walked four batters in the first inning alone and Josh Donaldson took him deep twice, giving him back-to-back multi-homer games. The Blue Jays jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and it was starting to look like the Twins lead for the second Wild Card spot was in jeopardy.

 

But the offense erupted for seven runs in the second inning and Gibson found himself as he cruised through the next four frames. The bats would add six more runs in the fifth inning, allowing a low-stress day for the bullpen.

 

The five earned runs and five walks make Gibson’s line look pretty ugly, but he only gave up three hits and had eight strikeouts over 6.0 innings. He didn’t allow a single base runner from the third through sixth innings.

 

Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton got the comeback started by hitting back-to-back homers. The big blast of the day came from Joe Mauer, who hit a grand slam in the fifth. Later that inning, Rosario addd his second home run of the day.

Mauer, Rosario and Buxton all finished with three hits. Byron also drew a walk. Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar and Jason Castro all had a pair of hits. Escobar added a walk and stole his fifth base of the season.

 

AL Wild Card Standings

WC1: Yankees 82-67 (+4.0)

WC2: Twins 78-71

Angels 76-73 (-2.0)

Mariners 74-76 (-4.5)

 

Postgame With Dozier

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

Download attachment: bullpen917.png

Looking Ahead

Mon: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Yankees (Jaime Garcia) , 6:05 pm CT

Tue: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Yankees (CC Sabathia), 6:05 pm CT

Wed: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Yankees (Masahiro Tanaka), 12:08 pm CT

 

Looking Back

TOR 7, MIN 2: Pub Crawlers Have Best Night Ever Despite Twins Loss

TOR 4, MIN 3: Pressley Fails To Pounce, Is Victim Of A Bad Bounce

MIN 3, TOR 2: Buxton Blasts Walk-Off HR

 

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[bluechipper]

This felt like a very important game for the Twins. Avoiding losing 3 of 4 against a team that's out of it is huge at this point in the season, and hopefully they can carry some momentum on the road now.

[h2oface]

Every pitcher should wear Gibson's jersey and number from now on. It seems that makes the batters score runs.

 

We dropped a game to the Yankees during this series. But we can still sweep in NY and be within 1 game of home field for the wild card game. Plus, we are up 2-1 on the season series for a tie-breaker. 

 

Then on to sweeping Cleveland, who are due for some losses. Positive waves, man.

[yarnivek1972]

So, I wonder if in his one start the team was able to pick up anything about Garcia that might help them tomorrow. Mauer has terrible career numbers against CC. 1 for 15 since 2012. Have to think he gets that day off. He's not realistically going to play in all the remaining games. With Wednesday being a day game, Tuesday is probably a good day.

 

Obviously, there needs to be a balance between putting the best people out there and making sure those people don't break down.

[Florida Loggerman]

Congrats to the entire Twins team! did not see this one coming today after such a slow/tough start today for Gibson. 4 walks alone in the 1st inning made me scratch my bald head and wonder if there any way in the world that the Twins could once again make a huge comeback? yup, they dang sure did, in a big way to boot~! good solid turn around for Gibby after that rough 1st inning, and the hitting with power??? what is going on? I'm, loving the power surge from Rosario/Buxton/Polanco! and even Mauer getting a taste of the long ball, really a huge tough stretch with the hated Yankmee's and then the unreal Indians, it's truly do or die in the next 7 days, I don't think our current starters are strong enough to make this WC happen, but with the way the offense has been playing, one never ever knows for sure,? have to keep the Faith!

[Broker]

@spinowner I agree. Mauer has been a terrific player for the Twins for many years. Without a doubt he is one of the few best players in MLB.

[PDX Twin]

"@Twins' DJ Dozier spit a few rhymes after a win over Toronto"

 

Really? DJ Dozier? That goes back decades to when I watched pointy-ball and the Vikings!

[DrNeau]

Mauer SMOKED that ball today. Would sure like to see more of that. 

[AlwaysinModeration]

I just looked at Brooksnet to check out Gibson's first inning. The walks to Smoak, Bautista and Pillar were all on the black. Plus another "ball" to Smoak was well inside the strike zone. His line was ugly, but after getting squeezed in the first, he pitched innings 2-6 giving up a walk and the solo homer to Donaldson. Good perseverance to make it possible for the comeback, and to get the game into the seventh before the bullpen had to come in.

 

I was thinking this morning about when Joe would hit his next home run.

[wavedog]

 

I just looked at Brooksnet to check out Gibson's first inning. The walks to Smoak, Bautista and Pillar were all on the black. Plus another "ball" to Smoak was well inside the strike zone. His line was ugly, but after getting squeezed in the first, he pitched innings 2-6 giving up a walk and the solo homer to Donaldson. Good perseverance to make it possible for the comeback, and to get the game into the seventh before the bullpen had to come in.

I was thinking this morning about when Joe would hit his next home run.

If you wouldn't mind thinking about when Joe will hit his next home run tomorrow morning as well - that would be much appreciated. 

[AlwaysinModeration]

If you wouldn't mind thinking about when Joe will hit his next home run tomorrow morning as well - that would be much appreciated.

He's been hitting the ball hard; some of those hits were bound to go out sooner or later. I think he will hit at least one more this season, maybe more than that.

[ThejacKmp]

There have been many fine things about this season. Joe Mauer remembering the 2000s is one of the finest. It's been a few years since you had that confident "something good is going to happen" certainty when Joe comes up. I'd almost forgotten how great that feeling was.

[jokin]

 

Mauer has been a terrific player for the Twins for many years. Without a doubt he is one of the few best players in MLB.

 

 

Actually, he used to be a terrific player for the Twins for many years- as a catcher.

 

Mauer was ranked one of the worst at his position for the three years previous to this season- according to Fangraphs, 25th best @ 1st base. While he is clearly having his best season since 2013, and his defense has greatly improved over the years, he's still only ranked around 16th best in terms of fWAR @ 1st base for 2017.

[SwainZag]

 

Actually, he used to be a terrific player for the Twins for many years- as a catcher.

 

Mauer was ranked one of the worst at his position for the three years previous to this season- according to Fangraphs, 25th best @ 1st base. While he is clearly having his best season since 2013, and his defense has greatly improved over the years, he's still only ranked around 16th best in terms of fWAR @ 1st base for 2017.

 

That's fair, 1B is a stacked position for sluggers.  That being said, with a team like this full of free swingers having a guy hit 305/385/420 with 800 OPS and 40 XBH has a ton of value.

[twinsnorth49]

Mauer is having an outstanding year, particularly August and September. He's a big part of the reason the Twins are still where they are.

[jokin]

 

That's fair, 1B is a stacked position for sluggers.  That being said, with a team like this full of free swingers having a guy hit 305/385/420 with 800 OPS and 40 XBH has a ton of value.

 

Agreed, it's great to see a little of the Old Joe back and somewhat resembling his previous form from his batting championship days. Seeing him pull that Grand Slam deep to RF makes me hope for a Renaissance Joe in finishing out his contract out with a flourish through 2018. But no matter how it ends up playing out, he's as much a hitter out of sync with the traditional production at his position as Wade Boggs was @ 3B for the Red Sox.

Edited September 18, 2017 by jokin

[Seth Stohs]

 

Mauer SMOKED that ball today. Would sure like to see more of that. 

 

I think his double off of the wall was hit just as hard. He's been hitting well all year!

[Connor Gould]

That's cool that Buxton is up to hitting .258 on the season after such a bad start. If he keeps this up next year across a full season, he could hit around .310 with 25 homers and 40 steals which would be great. Plus his defense is obviously elite.

[Gold15]

Thanks for the great right up. Love (win the Twins win) reading them.

 

I recently subscribed to the Athletic to read the Wilds coverage since Russo moved over there from the Strib. They have recently had a few Twins articles and did a right up on Gibsons turnaround. It basically said since he switched back to pitching off the 3rd base side opposed to the 1st base side of the (pitching) rubber, his era is 2.48. (Probably a little higher after yesterday's game) the down side is, throwing from the the 3rd base side puts more pressure on his shoulder.

[jimmer]

That's fair, 1B is a stacked position for sluggers. That being said, with a team like this full of free swingers having a guy hit 305/385/420 with 800 OPS and 40 XBH has a ton of value.

and then add the GG caliber defense he has provided.

[Doctor Wu]

Molitor was quoted in a post-game interview, talking about Gibson's rough first innnng: "Of all the things he's done, this one's, in some ways, is maybe a little more impressive to give us six innings after that start."

 

And I have to agree with that. Hanging in there, settling down, and giving the Twins six innings was huge. If Molitor had been forced to go to the bullpen in the second inning, well, the outcome of this game may have been very different. In any case, Gibson held it together when we needed it.

[MN_ExPat]

 

I think his double off of the wall was hit just as hard. He's been hitting well all year!

I concur as well.   I think we also have to factor in that he's finally been truly healthy and much better rested for the first time in a long time and we are all seeing the results.

 

Joe can still play

[Halsey Hall]

All those who put the loss on Molitor for not pulling Colon sooner should tip their hats to him today for letting Gibson continue. 

[Blackjack]

You forgot to mention that Dozier BUNTED for a hit.

 

 

From the Strib - "With Robbie Grossman on first and Jason Castro on second, Dozier noticed Donaldson playing back at third and bunted for a hit, loading the bases for Mauer."

[Tom Froemming]

 

You forgot to mention that Dozier BUNTED for a hit.

 

 

From the Strib - "With Robbie Grossman on first and Jason Castro on second, Dozier noticed Donaldson playing back at third and bunted for a hit, loading the bases for Mauer."

Dozier talks about the thought process behind that bunt in the postgame interview I included. I had no problem with that, take what the defense is giving you. Even if he didn't get the hit, you get two runners in scoring position with one out. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

All those who put the loss on Molitor for not pulling Colon sooner should tip their hats to him today for letting Gibson continue. 

 

100% different situations between the 5th/6th inning choices and the first inning choices, right? 

[stringer bell]

We all dislike giving away outs, but bunting for a hit is a completely different animal.

 

In games in the past 7-10 days, how many nominal sacrifices turned into something good? I just wish the Twins bunted better.

[USAFChief]

 

All those who put the loss on Molitor for not pulling Colon sooner should tip their hats to him today for letting Gibson continue. 

The two situations were not remotely similar.  

 

So..no.  

[Blackjack]

 

 I just wish the Twins bunted better.

 

You don't get to be a better bunter unless you practice it.  In game situations, not against a batting practice pitcher throwing 65 mph.

[Mike Sixel]

 

You don't get to be a better bunter unless you practice it.  In game situations, not against a batting practice pitcher throwing 65 mph.

 

that's what the minors are for, right?